Obama, Bill to Hillary’s rescue
President Barack Obama hit the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton, who is unwell, while her husband and former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to stand in for her at campaign and fundraising events in Los Angeles on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Images of Ms. Clinton’s wobbly steps to her vehicle on Sunday after a memorial event for 9/11 victims have dominated American news since then. More than the illness itself, the fact that her condition of pneumonia was not revealed until hours after the public mishap, has animated the discussion. The Democratic candidate was advised by well-wishers, including Mr. Obama’s press secretary Josh Earnest and a former advisor David Axelrod, to be more transparent.
In a telephone interview, Ms. Clinton told CNN that she “met a high standard of transparency” and she underestimated her illness. “I was supposed to rest five days — that’s what they told me on Friday — and I didn’t follow that very wise advice,” she said.
Mr. Axelrod’s tweet —“Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What’s the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?”— has gone viral, and Ms. Clinton campaign managers said more information about her health will be made public. Republican nominee Donald Trump did not comment on her health condition but promised to disclose a detailed report on his health this week. Mr. Trump has released no substantive information regarding his own health so far, and has refused to release his tax returns, which is a normal practice for presidential candidates.
Meanwhile, a new campaign ad released by the Trump campaign focuses on Ms. Clinton’s statement that half of his supporters are a “basket of deplorables.” In an attempt to charge up his base, Mr. Trump’s speeches on Monday also focused on this comment. “She called them racist, sexist, xenophobic, Islamophobic. She called half of our supporters a ‘basket of deplorables… She divides people into baskets — as though they were objects, not human beings,” Mr. Trump said, adding that his supporters are “wonderful, amazing people.”
Ms. Clinton is leading in opinion polls, but only by a narrow margin. Mr. Obama’s campaign is crucial for her. Supporters of Mr. Obama, particularly the millennials, are less enthusiastic for Ms. Clinton. “The president is determined over the course of the next eight weeks or so here to make a forceful case in support of her campaign,” Mr. Earnest said Monday. “He certainly believes that the stakes are high.”
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